Journal of Voyages

CHAPTER XXVI.

Voyage to New Orleans

About the first of December, 1831, I entered into an agreement in Philadelphia with a large contractor, who had engaged to open a canal from the city of New Orleans to Lake Ponekertrain. He had hired about one hundred and fifty men, and chartered a brig to carry them to New Orleans. We sailed about the sixth of December, and made our passage out in twenty days. The captain of the brig was a young man who was but little acquainted with that coast. As he found that I was more experienced than himself, he was very civil to me. I gave him information about this dangerous coast. On our arrival at New Orleans we were conveyed to some large shantees, built for the accommodation of the workmen. I was stationed in the store-room, with orders to weigh out the provisions, keep a daily account of the expenditures, and make weekly returns to the treasurer. This I found a very disagreeable situation, as the men were constantly finding fault with their provisions, although they were furnished with good tea, coffee, sugar, smoked shoulders, potatoes, salt fish, wheat bread and butter every Friday, fresh beef twice in the week, and eight glasses of whiskey per day. Notwithstanding this good treatment, we had riots among the men every few days, and all deficiency in stores or cooking was laid to my charge, and they often threatened my life. There were two other encampments on the same canal, one on the lake side, and one in the middle station, where they murdered one cook, mortally wounded one overseer, and severely injured many others.

A few months after they grew so riotous that the City Guards had to be called out to suppress them, when they were discharged by the company, and I was released from my contract. After they had spent all their wages they returned to their work and were very orderly. This canal is only six and a half miles long, and eight feet deep, but has added greatly to the wealth of the city. There was an old canal, formed mostly by nature, running nearly parallel with this new one, having about five feet depth of water in it, but it was often so much out of repair as to make it difficult to navigate, and as it did not answer the desired purpose, the new one was made. I obtained employment in a little schooner, which ran between New Orleans and Covington, through the old canal, crossing the lake and ascending a small river called Chepunkee, navigable some twenty-two miles. We sailed into the mouth of it about three miles, and then took in our sails and towed her the remaining distance to the little village called Covington. The river is so narrow in many places that vessels have scant room to pass by each other; a slight current sets down the river the whole time.

At Covington I found a number of steam sawmills, and abundance of sawed timber and boards, a few hotels, boarding houses, stores, and a printing office and several dwelling houses. This place is considered a healthy resort in the sickly season. Many small vessels find employment here in transporting lumber, brick, and cotton. We soon took in a cargo of lumber and returned to New Orleans, where we discharged it; when I entered on board of another schooner and made a trip to Mobile, which I found a very handsome city. The houses are built in modern style, the place has in it a number of large elegant hotels and stores, and many handsome streets. I was much annoyed with musquittoes while we remained in port, but soon left for New Orleans, where we landed after a passage of two days. In a short time I started for another trip across the lake. On my return I was taken sick. Finding that my small means would not support me long at a boarding house, and also pay the doctor's bills, I applied to the collector of the port, who gave me an order to go to the Marine Hospital, supposing I had a just claim to go there after paying hospital money to support such institutions over thirty years. During my stay in the hospital I found it was a private institution; that the collector and the keeper of it were kinsmen, and that the collector paid the keeper seventy-five cents per day for the board of every seaman he sent there. The daily rations allowed each man were about eight or ten ounces of bread, and five or six ounces of fresh meat, with the accompaniment of a small bowl of tea. The whole would not cost per day over twelve cents per man.

A number of seamen remain here a long time after they are restored to health, without receiving a discharge from the doctor, who is making fifty cents per day, or more, for their board. These men leave the hospital in the morning in pursuit of work, which they generally find, purchase their dinners at eating houses, and return to the hospital at night, where they receive their small rations and lodgings, the keeper pocketing his seventy-five cents per day from government during their stay here. They are left to decide for themselves when it is best to be well. In consequence of this, many of the sick in the hospital are crowded out of comfortable lodgings.

It will easily be seen that the greatest part of the tax collected from the hard earnings of seamen is used to enrich political favorites. I remained in this establishment about sixty days, during that time the yellow fever raged there violently, causing a number of deaths in the house. Many patients were brought there who were unable to walk or stand on their feet, and were most of them soon cured.

After I left the hospital I found some light employment for a few days, when I agreed to take another trip across the lake. Previous to my going on board of the vessel I returned to the hospital, where I had left some of my clothing, took with me such as I wanted, and left some of my heavy articles in charge of a sailor named Daniel Dunn, with whom I had formed a short acquaintance in the hospital, and proceeded over the lake, where we remained a few days, and then returned to the city. On my return I found the cholera had broken out and was raging to such an alarming degree that the inhabitants were terror-struck. The returns of deaths were over two hundred per day. Laborers wages for digging in the church burying ground was seven dollars per day. Not being able to procure laborers sufficient to dig single graves, they dug canals about one hundred rods in length, of sufficient depth to place three coffins one above the other, the water in the bottom of it being about eighteen inches deep. All graves dug in New Orleans are half filled with water before the coffins are deposited in them.

The morning after my return I proceeded to the hospital to see after my clothing. On visiting the building I was much surprised on walking through many of the rooms without seeing a living soul. In the back yard I found eight or ten dead bodies laying on the ground in a putrid state. I then searched the upper stories, and in a room called the small-pox ward, I found one dead body laying on a bed covered with a woollen blanket, in a very putrid state, the offensive gas rising through the blanket like a dense fog. Some few were still alive, but suffering for want of attendance. On descending the stairs I met the assistant physician of the hospital, and asked him the cause of this great neglect of the few who were still living. He told me that Doctor M'Farlane, the proprietor, was very sick, and that the cook, steward, washer woman, and the black man who conveyed the corpses to the grave, were all dead, and that they could not procure any assistance. He asked me if I would try to hire some help for him. I told him that I would use my best exertions to procure him some, but if I could not obtain any I would assist him myself. I then left him and returned to my lodgings. Just before I left my boarding house to visit the hospital I heard one of the boarders, a journeyman hatter, who had been on a drunken frolic for some days, say that he had spent all his money and had not enough left to get his bitters that morning. Knowing that the want of money in such circumstances stimulate men to undertake unpleasant jobs sooner than go without their bitters, I proposed his going to work with me at the hospital, and rendering the doctor all the assistance in our power, which he readily agreed to. When we arrived at the place I introduced the doctor to the hatter. After the introduction was over my partner showed a great anxiety to fix on the price of our day's work, which was soon settled at five dollars each. The bargain being closed we were presented with some antidote, which we were ordered to snuff up our noses.

About this time three or four carts arrived at the door, when we were requested to assist in carrying out the few sick persons that remained in the building, which we found to be only sixteen, being all that were left alive out of about sixty inmates that I left there some ten days before.

The doctor showed us a number of rough boxes, called coffins, which were placed in the back yard. Many of them were made very wide, that they might hold two dead bodies. He requested us to harness up a poor old half-starved horse, which we found on the premises. After a long search we found the old harness scattered about the yard, which we gathered up, both of us being ignorant of the way of putting it together. After a long consultation we placed it on the horse's back, which was so sore that he trembled badly during the operation. After we had rigged him and the cart, we agreed to take on one of the double coffins for the first load. We opened one of them and placed a large body in it, and then hunted for a small one to crowd into the same box; when we had accomplished this we attempted to lift the double coffin on to the cart; finding that we were not able to accomplish it we were obliged to roll it on. I asked the hatter if he would drive the horse to the grave-yard, telling him I was unacquainted with that employment. He told me he was a stranger to that business, and insisted upon it that I must be the driver. I mounted the cart and proceeded towards the burying ground, on the road we found the mud so deep that the cart wheels buried themselves nearly up to the hubs. After driving nearly a mile we arrived at the Catholic burying ground, where we found a long canal and twenty or thirty men employed in digging and receiving dead bodies. Before our arrival there, a board burst off from the coffin, which caused one arm to hang out. The Irish laborers employed there commenced a quarrel with us, swearing that they would be the death of us if we brought any more coffins there in that situation, and we found some difficulty in prevailing upon them to receive the present one. They at last agreed to help lift it off the cart. It was then placed in the canal, where the water was about two feet deep, two men stood upon it until they put another coffin on the top of it, when they placed the third one on the top of the second one, making the tier three deep, laying the coffins crossways in the canal. When one tier was finished they hove large quantities of lime upon it and commenced another.

We now returned to the hospital and took in two more bodies, enclosing them in single coffins. This time we found a number of chickens busily employed in the hospital yard picking maggots out of the eyes and ears of the putrid bodies laying on the ground in the yard. The hatter and myself had a long consultation about handling the putrid carcases, and agreed between ourselves to pick out the soundest of them first. We noticed some cartmen drawing a number of loads of wood and depositing them on a vacant lot of ground near the hospital. A report was circulated that the Mayor of the city had ordered the building to be burned down that night. We proceeded back to the grave-yard, where we met with a more peaceable reception. On our return we found the fowls still busily engaged on the dead bodies, which had become more putrid during our short absence. This was one of the most unpleasant scenes I ever witnessed. We stopped on our way and took some refreshments, and then conveyed two more loads to the burying ground, carrying two at each load.

About sunset we unharnessed our old horse and put him in his place. Having satisfied our employer we took our discharge. We agreed between ourselves to stop at the hospital a short time and see what disposal was to be made of the remaining dead bodies. Soon after sunset some eight or ten men made their appearance and took up an old door and bored one or two holes through it, and putting a rope through the holes, rolled two of the putrid bodies upon it, and then took hold of the rope and dragged it to a vacant lot near the hospital, which process they continued until they had gathered them all into one heap, when they went to the various rooms and took all the beds and bedsteads containing the dead bodies, and carried them into the same yard and deposited them on the putrid heap; they next broke down the fence to more readily kindle the fire on this offensive mass, when they piled on the three cords of wood which the Mayor had sent there for that purpose, set it on fire, and consumed the whole of it.

On viewing the place, while passing it the next morning, I could not discover a particle of bone larger than a man's finger-nail left.

The Cholera raged in New Orleans to a frightful degree for some months after; the average number of deaths in the city was two hundred per day for several weeks.

Soon after this I made a trip in a little schooner to St. Marks, and a small port called Magnolia, in West Florida, and then returned to the city, where I remained about two months, when I found employment as a mate on board of a brig called the Commodore Barry, bound to New-York, where I was to receive my wages and be discharged. We performed our passage home without meeting with any occurrence worth recording.

New Orleans is one of the most immoral cities I ever visited. All kinds of amusement are indulged in on Sundays: most of the military companies, both foot and horse, are assembled on that day in a public square in front of the Mayor's office and drilled. The Sabbath is the day elected for sham fights. The piazzas of the largest hotels are filled with bands of musicians, playing enchanting tunes to attract customers. The doors of billiard rooms are thrown open to public view, and large sums of money are often bet on the games. Strolling negro musicians are found playing on their banjoes and tamborines at the corners of the streets. On Sunday evenings, circuses, play-houses and gambling rooms, attract a large collection of people.

CHAPTER XXVII.

Schooner Horizon

Having lost all my property except a small homestead, by the many captures I had experienced, the perils of the sea, and the fluctuations of prices in the West India produce, and being now out of employment, and looking upon every man as slothful who remained idle when he could earn a competence by working for less wages then he formerly received, I agreed with a young inexperienced captain to perform a voyage with him in a small schooner of seventy tons, called the Horizon, from New-York to the Island of Teneriffe. My name was entered on the shipping articles as mate, although it was verbally understood that I was to be considered as the navigator and sailing master.

We commenced loading about the first of January, 1835, with staves and a few other articles, and went to sea about the eighth, the vessel being deeply loaded, which made her wet and uncomfortable for a winter's voyage. We proceeded on the passage without any material accident until we arrived in the latitude of Teneriffe, when we were overtaken by a violent gale of wind, which lasted nearly two days; we shipped a number of seas, which cleared our decks of staves, carried away our bulwarks, broke our bowsprit, and sprung the head of our fore-mast; rendering the schooner totally unmanageable. The next day the wind abated, and the sea became more moderate, when we made all the repairs that our scant materials would admit of, and in the afternoon discovered the high Peak of Teneriffe. Finding our water running low, having had our last cask stove during the gale, we agreed to come upon an allowance of one bottle of water for each man per day. The weather became mild, with light variable winds, which rendered the vessel quite unmanageable, as we had no head sail to keep her before the wind in light breezes. With longing eyes we viewed the majestic pyramid for fourteen days, the wind remaining the same during all that time, when we approached so near the harbor of Oratava that we were boarded by a pilot who conducted us into that port. Our schooner's cables being only about forty fathoms long, would not reach the bottom in that harbor, and we were obliged to hire a cable and anchor to ride by during our stay in port.

While lying here it is necessary to keep a pilot constantly on board, that we may be ready to proceed to sea the moment the wind changes so as to blow towards the land. After we had remained in the harbor some four or five days, and procured carpenters to repair our vessel, a gale of wind commenced, and we were compelled to slip our cable and go to sea again, where we remained about two days, when we put into the Island of Palmos, at which place we continued three or four days. After the gale abated we returned to our former anchorage in Oratava harbor.

The harbor of Oratava is surrounded by high rocks, almost perpendicular, faced with sharp points, which makes it impossible to ascend them. When vessels are wrecked in this place they are very soon dashed to pieces, and their crews meet a watery grave. The anchorage is situated about twelve miles from the foot of the Peak, where the weather is so mild that sailors are working on board vessels with no clothing except shirts and trowsers, while the Peak is covered with snow. Our pilot informed me that snow fell on the Peak every month in the year except March. The snow, from the appearance, forms a body of ice, and the brilliant rays of the sun at its rising are reflected on this ice-capped mountain with such dazzling light that the beholder is struck with awe as he surveys this mighty wonder of the world. I had but one opportunity to visit the shore, where I remained but a few moments while signing a protest. My short stay prevents my giving the reader any description of the place.

We employed two native carpenters to repair the damages the schooner had received on the passage, they came on board early every morning, bringing their dinners with them, which consisted of a six cent loaf of wheat bread, one head of lettuce, and a bottle of wine; this being the only food they had. At twelve o'clock they sat down on deck, made their meal and drank the wine. They brought on board a few very coarse carpenter's tools, among which was a hand-saw that attracted my particular attention, as it had a small hole in the point of it, through which they put a nail gimblet; when they wanted to split a board they lined in the usual manner, then placed one end on the deck and raised the other end up to an angle of about forty-five degrees, being supported by a saw-bench, when one of them took the saw by the handle in the common way, while the other put the gimblet through the hole in the point, which he took hold of by placing his fingers on both sides of the blade, and assisted in drawing the saw through the board, his comrade shoving on the other end; this was the first time I ever knew that it took two men to work one hand-saw.